Work starts on Hepburn Heights development

Work commenced today to clear an area of land at Hepburn Heights under a revised subdivision plan.

Lands Minister David Smith said the area of open space in the revised plan was about double the size of open space included in a previous plan submitted for approval by LandCorp.

"It is in line with a proposal put forward by Pam Beggs, but the reserved area has been increased to take account of the concerns of the Australian Heritage Commission," Mr Smith said.

"The area being reserved is nearly four times as big as the amount of public space that is required under statutory provisions for new subdivisions.

"Every possibility was canvassed in an attempt to reach a solution with the Australian Heritage Commission, the National Trust and the Wanneroo Council over this issue.

"This resulted in some consensus with the Australian Heritage Commission as to the areas of land that were most important in terms of conservation.  However, they were not willing to endorse the final plan but wanted to put it through their formal processes."

Mr Smith said the ratio between public open space and residential land was now evenly balanced between development and preservation.

The approved, revised plan set aside 16.94 hectares for public open space.  This represented 38.6 per cent of the land available for residential development.  Another 10 per cent was set aside for community facilities.  The public open space would be added to the Pinnaroo Memorial Park for management purposes but would not be developed or cleared.

The increased area of open space meant that there would now be 98 fewer housing sites and 42 fewer aged persons' units in the subdivision than originally planned.  This was equal to about $6 million in the loss of potential sales.

Under the new plan, 337 residential blocks and four development sites for aged persons' accommodation would be created.

About 10 hectares of land were set aside for community developments and a 3,500 square metre site was to be given to the Wanneroo City Council for a community facility.

"Residential development has been approved at Hepburn Heights by the Environmental Protection Authority and the State Planning Commission," Mr Smith said.

"The only reason development has been held up is to address local concerns of the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Trust.

"I believe the final plan is a fair compromise of the arguments presented by these groups.

"On planning grounds, residential zoning represents the most logical and best use of the site.

"The new subdivision will provide much-needed housing land reasonably close to the city at affordable prices."